This right here is short, bittersweet, and 100% on the mark. Every hobby is now a side hustle, everything we do is in the relentless pursuit of money or recognition. Between the relentless grind economy and social media, we're ruining all the things we love for the sake of cash and clicks.
When I was at school, I learned to play recorder for a few years. At some point in middle school I started learning flute. I'm not sure if I ever actually *really* enjoyed either, but it was something I could do and it was satisfying to get better at it. I didn't really do it outside of lessons, and practicing for lessons and exams. But then in high school my flute teacher really pushed me in a way I didn't like. He wanted to get me angry with him because it meant I'd play loudly, and that would be needed when (not if, in his opinion) I'd play to an audience. I hated him and I started to hate playing flute. I was pushed into the school orchestra and at the first rehearsal I went to I was awkward and shy and embarrassed and couldn't get a note out because of it, and threw my flute on the floor in frustration (denting it) and stormed out and never played again. And all because an activity that would have been nice to continue with if I'd been allowed to just do it for myself and no one else, was forced to be a performance, a product, a thing for other people's enjoyment, not for mine.
My uncle died last year and my aunt has been making noises about having to clear out his study, and I have my eye on his digital piano - rather a nice one, I understand - because, being digital, I could plug headphones into it and not worry about anyone else hearing me play on it. And I don't mean "play" as in "perform music", but "play" as in "amuse myself". And ironically I might actually get good at it and even enjoy playing music if only there wasn't the *requirement* to get good at it.
so many fucking social media sites are now adding alt-text functionality and designing their UI so that the textbox you enter the alt text into COVERS UP THE IMAGE
They put the buttons *over* the image? Some (most) modern UI designers clearly didn't learn Ian Malcolm's lessons about being so preoccupied with whether or not they could do something, they didn't stop to think if they should.
I often describe other people’s images on here and in the reply box on mobile I cannot see the picture of the toot I reply to, only the first words. It creates so much suffering.
@ciggysmokebringer I've learned to open the image somewhere else if i need to reference it (sometimes i do just completely forget what it was regardless) But yeah, definitely suboptimal to cover the image being described with the field used to describe it
When every image is fully described by a human in embedded text, and the mood behind the disability activists pushing the initiative turns from "can you please use alt text for vision impaired? Thanks!" To "you are an ableist if you don't alt text everything, we plan to defederate instances with too little alt text, and we sell courses on how to write alt text", you know its possible something else is afoot.
I guess normal people remember things better. I too have to actually look at it and don't have the whole blasted thing 100% memorized when I do things like writing alt text. I have to do that sort of thing for a lot of things though (not just alt text.) I don't know how people do it.
Agreed, once I had literally to open a new tab and switch back and forth between notepad and image so I could later paste into the alt image description.
@waimus ugh, I hate when that sort of muscle memory stuff happens. I had a laptop with USB a while back, and then I switched to one that had usb on the left and a fan hole on the right. for MONTHS I kept accidentally plugging my mouse into the fan when I tried to set up my desk
What does a robot do if the company that built their replacement part goes out of business? Will the specifications be open so they can at least theoretically have a part fabricated, or do they just have to remain broken now?
Will there be secret off switches that shatter their knees if they see the wrong mechanic? Become immobile if they get anywhere near one?
Who will own the copyright on their mind? They keys to their heart?
When IEEE Spectrum published an article in February about blind people whose bionic vision systems had become obsolete and unsupported, it generated both attention and outrage.
Go to https://buyraycon.com/rowanj for 20% off your first pair of earbuds.A breakdown of William Shatner's excellent performance as Captain James T Kirk from...
Hello, yes. Thanks for dropping by. Please sit down. Do you want a coffee? Tea. OK, no, no I agree, let's get straight to it.
The thing is that you have been here for a long time, about four million years according to our records, and you have achieved some great things in that time. There are one or two slip ups, a couple of ... well it says world wars here, but I don't think that they covered the entire planet. But that's the thing, you had learnt from those two blips, or so it seems, so we're concerned that it looks like another one could bubble up.
The situation on the planet? Yes that's our concern too and we appreciate that it is quite pressured here, and there are lots of reasons to feel uncertain about life right now, but turning on those around you is not the right answer, so we want to work through with you some options and see where we can help. We don't want to lose you but, if this behaviour isn't checked, you are likely to be asked to find another solar system, and we don't want that. Nobody does.
Well, what we would like to do is help you with weekly mentoring, and a review at the end of each week to see how you have got on. This can still be rescued and easily we think, but we need to be sure. The mentoring is there to give you someone you can discuss things with, frankly and honestly because that's what it is going to take. And if we can do something to help, the mentor is there to make sure that you get it.
Well, here's the action plan we'd like to discuss and it does include a temporary, I want to stress that, temporary reduction in the load on you. We're going to do things like transfer responsibility for nuclear armaments to a group with less on its plate right now. We're also going to get you some help with redistribution of wealth and tackling poverty, which seems to be particularly difficult for you right now. That will help you concentrate on you and getting better, which has to be your priority right now.
I'm sorry, I know this is painful and probably came as a shock. We're doing this for your benefit, ultimately. It's clear something is not right for you now humanity and, going forward, we can't live with that.
You can stay here as long as you need or leave, you can take the rest of the day if you need it, I've cleared that already. Is there anyone you'd like me to call for you right now?
Don't worry, we can get through this. We're all here for you.
The Furvana main stage room is... not big, but every time @ratchetfoxxo.bsky.social and @terkwolf.bsky.social manage to cram a hilariously awesome rig into the space. There were at least 14 lasers, the system exceeded the building's power, and I think I blew out an eardrum :P #GeneratorPower
An idea for games series like Call of Duty - have a counter in somewhere that is not obvious that every game in the series can write into, of the number of friendly fire incidents the player commits. If it gets too high, one of the later games in the series can, just before the final battle, pull the player into a Temple of Hate and be confronted with Agrajag. Yes, it turns out every friendly fire incident was killing the same person, and they're fed up of it.
Good news everyone! The climate crisis has been solved: Reform UK and Donald Trump are going to make it illegal to talk about it and make sure all evidence is deleted.
“When we are told that living standards are up because the averages look rosy, we should remember what Danny Dorling pointed out: an average can hide a multitude of sins.
If Jeff Bezos walked into a Norwich pub, the average wealth in the room would shoot through the roof, but not a single person’s pint would get cheaper – and I doubt he would get to the bar ahead of anyone else, either.”
Exactly. When I think about good times in pubs (in part because I’m so old) I think pre-Amazon. But seriously, young people then spent their spare time and money out of the house…in the pub, cinema or bowling alley. This wasn’t high culture or especially healthy, but it was sociable and just about affordable. The tech bros like Bezos have brought us a very selfish, insular life.
Not just the tech bros though, is it. They're a big part of it, but the commercialisation of politics, failing to regulate or maintain existing regulation on everything from progressive taxation to rentierism, workers rights and corporate greed, has made it absolutely impossible for generations since 2008 to have the life we had back then.
The people most likely to be selfish and insular are the very ones who created the situation in the first place.
That is because the wrong sort of average is being used. Never use a mean average in a case like that, use a mode or even a median could be more accurate.
the way I tend to think about it: Talking about the average favours those at the top because you can make the average go up by just increasing the highest numbers. Talking about the median is better as you can only make it go up if the numbers in the middle go up. You can still abuse it but it's more difficult.
A lot of potentially useful info here for other FOSS projects, particularly those who might not have access to the legal assistance required to set up something like this.
I will say IANAL - just someone who's read of the difficulties some projects have getting/affording legal advice specifically for FOSS projects.. hopefully it might be useful to someone, in some way!
When a legal takedown request arrives, whether it’s about copyright,censorship, privacy, or something more vague, how a Free and Open SourceSoftware (FOSS) p...
So some people are now talking about possible amendments to the #OnlineSafetyAct. One possibility being talked about is a "tiered" approach where very small sites get a pass on the requirements, but have to notify Ofcom that they're running a site under this exemption - presumably providing contact information in case Ofcom need to deal with any - let's face it - nonconforming speech.
Incredibly disappointing to see that many people, including @openrightsgroup appear to have had their expectations of what a "free Internet" means reframed to such an extent.
We shouldn't be bargaining for the right to gather and communicate online. This shouldn't be a conversation that we're having. Indeed, we tried this approach, and we were roundly ignored.
This is a human rights issue. This is a freedom of expression issue. You do not bargain with human rights abusers.
Fight this. Commit to fighting instances where Ofcom and the prosecutor pick a fight. Commit to bringing cases in front of the ECHR. Work with other digital rights organisations to give some sliver of hope to people who end up being targeted by this. Give people a little bit of confidence to flout this unjust legislation.
If you can't afford to do any of that, I still think legitimising this by effectively admitting to government that sites need to be on some sort of "register" and that gatherings of people online need to be carefully monitored is massively damaging to the cause.
Hot take but: If you're asking someone why they might need E2EE for their chat messenger, then you're probably sitting on some mighty fine throne of privilege my friend.
I think there'll be *some* outliers, of course. There's a good chunk of Z+ that I'm seeing in retro circles, who are very much trying to keep that alive. Just worried there's not enough of them.
I think the rise of games consoles in the European market and the switch from coding being part of computer literacy education to Spreadsheets and windows office drone work shortchanged millenials onward when it comes to computer literacy. People went from learning to type programs to typing word documents.
there are some genius Z programmers doing game reverse engineering stuff right now. I don't think all hope is lost. But yea, it is worrying. Roots of tech stuff are thanks to boomers too, there are some that know a thing or two.
@colinstu i was referring to more.to casual users than people in the field. "What is a folder structure" is not a question i imagined getting asked of me by someone significantly younger than me but (thanks to most tech interactions moving off PCs and onto walled garden phones and tablets) here we are
@colinstu Exactly. I don’t understand the details about FAT32, NTFS, etc, but I understand the basics about drives, partitioning, folder structures, etc.
In particularly dislike Microsoft’s “We handle all of this for you/put it all on the cloud” crap. It dumbs down the system way too much.
" Exactly. I don’t understand the details about FAT32, NTFS, etc, but I understand the basics about drives, partitioning, folder structures, etc."
Nor do you...or should you need to. There is such a thing as a middle-ground here.
Understanding how a computer works down to the bit level is not empowering. But understanding how to file away files and categorise folders DOES. It is this empowerment that big tech wants to take away through gradual dumbing down. And it has worked. You can always count on human laziness.
One of the two original creators of the UNIX operating system, Ken Thompson, is still alive and doing well at 82 years young. That really drives home how young the field of computing really is. 1970 was only 55 years ago, hardly long enough to even register in terms of human technological development.
"WHAT'S GOING ON? WHAT'S WITH ALL THESE WAVES! ARE WE GOING TO CAPSIZE?" "CALM DOWN! It's Kaiju Mating season." "So you're telling me all these unexpected waves are Kaiju getting it on?" "Got it in one"
I haven't had to much exposure to Kaiju's before reading the "The Kaiju Preservation Society" by John Scalzi and now this book comes to mind every time they pop up.
Randomly, I seem to have become a bit of a fan of Wacky the Wolf from a ten-year-old children's show called A.N.T. Farm. He's the school mascot and shows up briefly in pretty much every episode, either as a background character or actually interacting with the main characters. No one really calls attention to him specifically, he's just another person who happens to be there, just fluffy and mute. As it should be!
Today! (Well, yesterday as it's now well past midnight.) I achieved something! I've been meaning to do this for a while and it's been ages in the planning, but I got the physical work done in just a few hours on a single day. I've installed a hanging rail inside the under-the-stairs cupboard so we can hang our coats in there. We now have a proper Jeeves cupboard! And we no longer have to have the free-standing hanging rail cluttering up the hallway. Of course, now I need to find some other home for the ironing board, step ladders, clothes airers and such that won't fit any more now that there's a rail in the way! It was a simple matter of four screws (two into plasterboard, two into plasterboard-then-probably-breezeblock), plus a bunch of time making sure it was all as level and square as I could get it, and cutting the rail to length, but I'm kinda proud of myself. Just finding all the tools in the incredibly full garage was a challenge in itself. But it's done!
30 August: I got out on my bike! Having had some servicing done recently (11 August apparently! Oof, I'm really not getting out much) I really ought to get out on the roads more, but at least I got out on one day. This is a selfie in the mirrored doors of the hall wardrobe at the old house, so I must have visited there that day.
I think 12 August was about the sunniest day we've had since the solar panels got put on the roof. It's certainly the one with the best graph - it's nice and smooth and you can clearly see the "shoulders" in the morning and afternoon where the panels on the garage are shaded by the houses on either side; the couple of cloudy periods in the middle of the day are easy to ignore and don't prevent seeing the shape of the curve.
I've been slipping behind in so much lately. I was only a few days behind on my timeline, then got busy briefly and suddenly BAM - I'm a week behind. Ugh. Catching up again, hopefully, now.
I've taken several photos recently with the intention of posting here, but for some reason hadn't got round to. Maybe because posting is not as convenient as it could be. Video requires me to SFTP the file to one of my servers, squish it to a more web-friendly form factor with ffmpeg, stuff it in a specific folder and link it from a post. Photos Friendica can actually handle natively but it's still a bit of a faff, especially as I do prefer to write alt text.
So anyway, first photo.
28 August: Look! My kitchen window has been decorated! Halloween's come early. ;)
I haven't been very active here lately, but my convention season finally starts next week! Please get excited with me and check out my boyo's lovely new video here: 🤍💜🤍💜🤍💜
Hey guys,the time has finally come! After a long wait, we have finally finished the video for the last Eurofurence. I would like to thank all the furries who...
There's another name I haven't heard in ages. This makes me want to pull out some of my old con photos. I kind of miss conventions sometimes, I haven't been to one since 2010. But they're so different now I don't know if I would even enjoy it at this point.
I'm enjoying smaller conventions - not that I make it to many - but the big mega-cons are just too much work and stress leading up to 'em. I don't want to get a membership, then stress for weeks until the room block opens and hope to get a room in the thirty seconds before they sell out. I'm doing this for *fun*.
@xoagray Furry cons are just having trouble making the jump to big attendances - back when I was hitting haunt trade shows and IAAPA they had huge crowds but ran far smoother.
*nods* It's not only that though, even if you find a room sometimes physically meeting up with people can be difficult with that many people. And there are other things. Neither I nor the fandom are anything like we were 15 years ago.
When I was at school, I learned to play recorder for a few years. At some point in middle school I started learning flute. I'm not sure if I ever actually *really* enjoyed either, but it was something I could do and it was satisfying to get better at it. I didn't really do it outside of lessons, and practicing for lessons and exams. But then in high school my flute teacher really pushed me in a way I didn't like. He wanted to get me angry with him because it meant I'd play loudly, and that would be needed when (not if, in his opinion) I'd play to an audience. I hated him and I started to hate playing flute. I was pushed into the school orchestra and at the first rehearsal I went to I was awkward and shy and embarrassed and couldn't get a note out because of it, and threw my flute on the floor in frustration (denting it) and stormed out and never played again. And all because an activity that would have been nice to continue with if I'd been allowed to just do it for myself and no one else, was forced to be a performance, a product, a thing for other people's enjoyment, not for mine.
My uncle died last year and my aunt has been making noises about having to clear out his study, and I have my eye on his digital piano - rather a nice one, I understand - because, being digital, I could plug headphones into it and not worry about anyone else hearing me play on it. And I don't mean "play" as in "perform music", but "play" as in "amuse myself". And ironically I might actually get good at it and even enjoy playing music if only there wasn't the *requirement* to get good at it.